It’s the most basic of business plans: Find a need and fill it. And that’s what Lachelle Williams, founder, CEO and director of education of Gimme A Hand School of Manicuring, has accomplished, though it’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. “All my learning was trial and error,” said the 30-year-old mother of four. “I bumped my head a few times.”With most beauty schools focusing largely on cosmetology, Ms. Williams said students interested in studying nail technology, as she did early in her career, get short shrift.“The nail students are stuck reading books themselves and teaching themselves as they go along,” she said. “It’s always been in the shadows of cosmetology.”So, as a 27-year-old manicurist, Ms. Williams decided to remedy the situation. Daunting? Absolutely. But even tougher to face was the notion of letting her idea fade away.“If it wouldn’t have worked, I could have said that at least I tried,” she said. “If I had sat on it, someone else would have done it and I’d have said, ‘That was my idea!’”As she tasked herself with tackling the paperwork of starting the school and seeking startup grant money — some of which she won through a national business plan competition — Ms. Williams kept her ambitions a secret.“Lots of people thought I couldn’t do it. They thought I’d crack under the pressure,” she recalled. “It took a long time before I could even mention it.”For motivation, she had her four children: Her daughter Jordyn, now 11, her sons Marlon, 9, and Marshall, 5, and her youngest daughter, Brooklyn, now three years old.“Four kids give you the inspiration to do anything, when you’ve got mouths to feed,” Ms. Williams said with a laugh.Since opening her doors in 2005, Ms. Williams has graduated about 100 students, and has designs on expanding the business to other locations and adding a skin-care program as well.Ms. Williams credits her faith with helping her through, calling God “the mastermind” behind her plan.“I wanted to have something I could be proud of, and my children could be proud of, and inspire other people,” she said. “(To) say, ‘Even if you’re down, you don’t have to stay there.’”

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